The young Caliph Vathek's hedonism is matched only by his insatiable lust for forbidden knowledge. When a hideous and strange traveller arrives bearing occult artifacts beyond mortal comprehension, the prince tumbles down a path of ruin to uncover their secrets, risking his immortal soul to unlock the secret mysteries of the universe. Vathek reads like a lost laudanum-tinged chapter of the Arabian Nights, a strange and dreamlike descent into Hell.

Vathek is the first book in the Argot Early Gothic Collection. From the gloomy castles and maniacal villain of The Castle of Otranto; the sex, witchcraft, and demons of The Monk; to Vathek